Class Feedback

[RiseOfDeath]

I tank in PVE content, and I play all specs in PVP.

PVE: Fully augmented Campaign Survivor's gear.

PVP: 92 valor, fully augmented War Hero Stalker's gear, and halfway through the War Hero Survivor's set as well.

 

 

1. How do you think your Assassin spec is perceived by other classes?

 

Darkness (PVE):

In PVE, people consider us to be more suited to an off-tank role because of the nerf to the armor and self-heals. They believe that nerfing both the armor and self-healing was too much, and I agree, to an extent. Some people are over-reacting to the nerfs, though, and aren't allowing assassin tanks to raid with them.

 

Darkness (PVP):

In PVP, people consider us an awesome jack-of-all-trades spec, but not overpowered (as they were considering us before). It's a great spec to play in PVP, but personally can get fairly boring. It's very effective, though.

 

Deception (PVP):

This is considered a horrible PVP spec, and I agree. We just don't have enough burst in our burst + not enough utility/ defenses. You can burst down sith sorcerers fairly quick if it's just you against them in this spec, but pretty much anything else is going to give you a hard time if they're attacking you as you're fighting them.

 

Madness (PVP):

People have started switching to this spec to dps, since it's a more viable PVP spec (when comparing it to deception). Everyone recognizes the damage potential of this spec, and consider it a balanced PVP spec.

 

 

 

2. How do you perceive your own spec?

 

Darkness (PVE):

I consider my PVE spec to be a viable tank, but we may require a bit more gear to be as effective as other tanking classes. Although I didn't want to see my class nerfed (who doesn't?), I'm content with the changes and haven't noticed too much of a difference in PVE survivability.

I'm still main-tanking perfectly fine!

 

Darkness (PVP):

While this class is effective, the rotation is quite boring and easy to play, and I only spec into darkness to pvp if I'm needed in that role. It's definitely effective, though.

 

Deception (PVP):

I leveled as deception, and stayed with it until almost 80 valor. I was getting frustrated with the lack of survivability, lack of reliable, high burst (the cannon aspect of this glass cannon class seemed to be not as powerful as it should be), and the fact that after I performed my rotation, I generally was stuck attempting to run away and then dying as there was no ability that let me stealth away after every fight (the current stealth we have on the 2min cooldown doesn't cut it, and even when I use it, it breaks unless I cleanse the dots on me, which requires another cooldown).

 

I kept going, however, because it was still fun (and still is, but not as much after I've seen what the other specs have to offer). Now, though, I barely ever play it because of the 0 viability it has.

 

This spec needs something major reworked. Initially, I envied operatives for the fact that they could pop out of stealth, knock you down and decimate your health and down you very quickly. With deception assassins, we knock you down, we start setting up our burst, but before we can get it all off the person is already up and kicking our butts. If we do end up getting it off it's never enough to kill them, and we get annihilated by the other person because of our survivability.

 

We need an initial attack that knocks down the target for more than spike does, hurts major damage, and helps us set up the rest of the burst that's about to come (procs?). We also need another defensive cooldown that helps us survive that onslaught after the person gets up and starts attacking.

 

Madness(PVP):

This spec is fantastic, and although a bit more survivability would be nice, it's fine the way it is.

 

 

----------------------------

 

The bottom line is, deception needs a buff. I'm sure you designers have thought about this and are wondering if it needs a buff. For some reason, you seem reluctant to do anything to help this class perform to standard in pvp, and it's fairly frustrating.

 

If a deception assassin was supposed to perform like an effective hit-and-run class, as you say, something went very wrong with the design.

 

Deception was a fun class to play, albeit not very effective. Now, after seeing what the other specs have to offer, it's much less fun, and very frustrating to try to play effectively. Something needs to change.

Edited July 21, 2012 by RiseOfDeath

[krossjointz]

1. How do you think your Assassin spec is perceived by other classes?

as a mediocre off tank with some dps properties.

 

 

2. How do you perceive your own spec?

A weak pve tank with poor damage capabilities and survivability. Since patch 1.3 i do not see assassins roll tank in pve FPs very often and when i do they dont do as good as the other tank classes. however in pvp i see EVERY assassin as darkness. why? quite simple its the only decent/viable spec the assasssins have for pvp right now with some good damage and amazing force regen compared to the other specs.

 

When i started playing i picked the inquisitor because of the description for them, when i read that they did massive damage with dual bladed lightsabers i got excited and wanted a true stealthy dps toon that would be fragile and mobile with high burst. what do i end up recieving? a wet paper bag. my damage is absolutely atrocious and how bioware can sit back and assume they have done good with this spec is beyond me ive quit my assassin and have started an operative whos damage and energy regen far outbalances my assassin by any means not to mention i have self heals so i rarely die, oh yea did i mention that my most damage moves cost maybe 10 energy and i get an energy regen that i can keep up constantly with more CC then my assassin. the only thing my assassin has over ANY class is sprint and thats about it. i really think the damage trees need a buff to make them either more viable or just as viable as the darkness tree thereby giving assassins more freedom to play the game then make cookies with the same generic cutter specs like wow has been doing as of late

 

TL;DR darkness more viable in pvp then other dps specs, no pve darkness tanks. remove darkness make it a dps tree? or just balance out the dps trees/force regen issues

[Adnon]

I play a Darkness Spec Assassin and tank PVE content for my guild

1. How do you think your Assassin spec is perceived by other classes? As a squishy offtank. Good for picking up trash mobs and just in case the main tank I can pick up the mob long enough for a in combat res to get the Mt back up so he can take over.

 

 

2. How do you perceive your own spec? I can understand why my healers don't like having me tank bosses. With my self heals now being nerfed and my mitigation being avoidance dependent, I'm not the ideal person to tank something hard. This bothers me, of course, because I lead our raid and specifically wanted to be main tank. Overall, I am leveling a powertech so i can stop playing my assassin and have more reliable damage mitigation as well as higher threat generation.

[TOJOLOBAL]

1) Assassins are not equivilant to other AC's as DPS or Tanks and so they aren't sought after, instead tolerated.

 

2) Deception doesn't compete with marauders for lack of the ability to survive and only similar damage output, yet not sustainable. Instead more often I see Darkness speced for DPS. Darkness speced as Tanks don't compete with Powertechs/Jugs either..

 

When I think of an "Assassin" I presume the class would have high damage but not sustainable.. can't say deception pulls that off when compared to the other DPS AC's.

 

Conversely Darkness may not fit the initial definition of "Assassin", but I actually like the darkness visuals and concept of a ethereal force heavy sith. Would love to see our stealth mode fit the same whispy force visuals instead of the x-ray neon purple.

 

My question would be : Are we saying that the DPS AC's that only have DPS spec options (Marauders and Snipers) SHOULD have higher DPS than any other classes or that DPS AC's simply have more options to play as DPS style? My impression is the later, not the former. Any AC who picks a DPS spec in their class should compete with the other AC's, same with Tanking and Healing.. Assassins at the moment seem weak in both of their available Spec options (if only a bit).

[drummerinthesun]

1. I play Deception, and have played it from level 10-50 (messed around with Darkness but didn't like the playstyle). I think most people see it as useless, or don't even know it exists, since there are so many Darkness assassins. The give away for Deception is the yo-yo blade of VS, and that makes us easy targets for most people in PVP matches since our survivability is low.

 

2. I've always liked the idea of the Deception assassin, but most of the skills don't fit into the classic image of an assassin. We need to be able to vanish more than once every two minutes, have more debilitating talents in our tree (maybe reducing accuracy or armor, or have surging charge apply a DoT that can stack), and better energy regeneration. Posts before me said it well: a glass cannon should be able to output better damage, for longer periods of time than we can at our current rate of survivability.

[GeneralShade]

Played around with all specs, mostly deception -PVE perspective:

 

Darkness:

1. How do you think your Assassin spec is perceived by other classes?

Squishy tank after 1.3 nerfs

 

2. How do you perceive your own spec? - I've only tanked HM FPs (mix tionese/columi/exotech) When encountering multiple normal/strong packs, I tend to take a lot of spike damage very fast, which makes me nervous. My damage mitigation seems fine on most bosses. Excellent threat generation.

 

Madness:

1. How do you think your Assassin spec is perceived by other classes?

Considered the only viable dps spec.

 

2. How do you perceive your own spec?

I want to love this spec but I just hate having to paste death field down as a melee dps. I would love to have an optional talent in madness tree that would make DF operate like wither (damage radiates from caster, no pasting). Unearthed knowledge seems very underwhelming, I've been getting higher damage in most of my dummy parses skipping shock altogether <- this should be looked at.

 

Deception:

1. How do you think your Assassin spec is perceived by other classes?

Terribad dps spec

 

2. How do you perceive your own spec?

I don't think deception's sustained dps is bad as everyone is making it out to be. My parses on the target dummy are on par with my madness parses. Excellent burst on demand when lining up procs/adrenals. I've noticed that you need to weave in more saber strikes when using deception to have a fluid (non force starved) rotation. If adjustments need to be made to improve sustained damage, an increase to the saber strike damage should be considered.

[krossjointz]

Another thing about assassins, Assassination ment to be a killshot but feels just as powerfull as any other 6s cd move. maybe making it feel more like a real killshot by buffing the damage more since its only usable under 30% hp

[Ekemeister]

1. How do you think your Assassin spec is perceived by other classes?

Assassin is seen as underpar in all of its roles. Tanking is significantly less efficient as an assassin. DPS as an assassin is inferior in both burst and sustained. I've heard a lot of people say that the only place an Assassin has is in pub-stomping.

2. How do you perceive your own spec?

First, I would like to say that I'm used to playing as an Assassination rogue from WoW, and I started after rogues got disfigured via banhammer. Life sucked until I got gear. Then I started to stand toe-to-toe competitively. The reason why i couldn't progress into higher content as a rogue was perception, or more specifically prejudice. People percieved that class and spec as underpowered regardless of changes to reality.

Infiltration/Deception Spec Assassin/Shadow are litterally that spec right now. With lots of work, skill, and a razer naga, burst can be on point with other classes. However, enduring public prejudice will stunt the class later on.

Honestly, I enjoy laughing at the scoreboards with my roommate after topping in either damage, kills, or trophies. I adore disrupting a line-up of healers, harrying the capture of a node, or simply being a decoy to turn a 6v6 into a 4v6 or even a 3v6. Each time I cloak and get away; every single time. It's even funnier to save people using the assassin burst + mind control, but only because I contradict their prejudice. However, this class is at present very underpowered: in both fp regen and burst. My marauder has better sustain and burst at lv 27 than my Assassin at lv 40. transferring targets without re-stealthing destroys dps.

I want to keep playing this class; I really do. However, I know that I want to see the marauder and Imperial Agent storylines. When I pvp as those classes, I will have so much more burst, utility, and acceptance while still keeping stealth/burst/rogue persona that I won't come back. I'll be able to this game as an mmo instead of a solo, so i won't come back. That's just a shame since I love both this class's concept and Darth Maul.

[Onepint]

PVE

1: How do others perceive my class?

 

Both dps specs are considered weak atm, we as a guild would rather take any other class including the weak operative dps specs. Deception is just unviable with no AOE abilities (lacerate is not even on most players bars). Madness assassins will be taken as a last resort. The combat res of assassins is useful but the dot spec of madness even makes them have to wait for them to fall off before trying to ro res, reducing dps more.

Darkness on the other hand is still a great tanking spec and general opinion seems to have no favouritism between any of the tanks out there.

 

2: How do I perceive my class?

 

Deception is a joke. Too squishy, damage not sustainable and no AOE.

Madness is a fun spec to play but even with death field can still only hit 3 mobs. Lacerate needs a huge buff for both dps specs. More viable dps primarily due to having some ranged abilities, but as a tank I would rather have any other class than an assassin with me.

Darkness. I'm almost full campaign and BH gear and joint MT I guess with a Jug. I find my class to be very good in most scenarios. Only really struggling where bosses ignore shield. Threat generation is superb and I easily overagro everyone including the other tanks. AOE tanking is superb using wither, discharge and taunt if that doesn't hold.

Self healing is non existent now and my recklessness, surge adrenal, force lightning heals dropped from 1.5k per tick to 450ish. Although I miss them, it's the missing armour that does hurt. Especially the kephess fight, where I take far more damage than the other tank.

 

Final though. Dps specs need a lot of love to become useful again. Bring armour level back up a bit to get in line with the other tanks again.

 

As far as PVP is concerned I'll leave that to those who care.

Edited July 28, 2012 by Onepint
Spelling mistake

[SusAntigoon]

Hello there,

A madness assassin (dps) here. Here is my opinion...

 

1. How do you think your Assassin spec is perceived by other classes?

 

PVE

As for heroics, we are most of the time welcome in a group. As for harder missions why would the group not go for a "better" DPS class? Like for Marauders or operatives for instance?

 

PVP

They see us as an easy target, fast to kill. Especially 1 VS 1 battles: no class in SWTOR will be a afraid to go 1 VS 1 on us. Ranged DPS classes have far more survivability then us, so they can target us and shoot us down quite easy. The real problem is they aren't afraid we go in close combat with them...

 

If you are in a good team with decent healers, the opposite team wants to kill you fast because we are quite anoying putting dots all the time.

 

To be short, i don't think our teammates are thrilled to see a madness assassin in the pvp team. We don't bring any buff or other stuff for our teammates and our dps numbers are most of the time just avarage. And the opposite team isn't afraid of us. Even if we play a very good warzone most of the time our teammates (except if they are in your guild our something) won't give us some credits for it.... Lol, even if you unlock two doors in Voidstar or something.

 

2. How do you perceive your own spec?

 

PVE

Fun to play. I like stealth a lot but an operative and even a marauder can stealth aswell. To bad... This should be something unique for one class in my opinion. The pve story was great!

 

PVP

We realy need far more survivability and a buff or something for our teammates so we actualy mean something for our group. Or we need to do more melee damage (better abilities and burst damage) so our enemies are a little bit afraid seeing us coming. The ranged dps is fine as it is.

Edited August 6, 2012 by SusAntigoon

[Omicrie]

I have played darkness build pre-50 (quit when i started using recruit) as well as the other 2 builds.

 

1) - Darkness: the most played spec of the 3, good mobility, poor dps unless wearing dps gear, sub par to the juggernat and powertech tanks when in full tank gear.

 

- Deception: Broken spec, rare to see, limited dps and team utility. similar to an operative without an opener, if they had a slow. Not very good for pvp or pve at lvl 50.

 

-madness: weaker than in a sorc in all respects except for death field. Weak dps, objective preventer, pvp build.

 

 

2) -Darkness: all around fairly nice spec, find dps ok in comparison to other tanks, squishier than other tanks 1 lucky hit can make a huge difference, mobility is good but not as powerful as a jump. weaker melee damage than jug, and weaker range damage than powertech, decent mid range damage but have to constantly slow / chase people.

 

- Deception: can be fun to play, weak dps in general, takes alot of damage, undesirable for operations and pvp teams, not any better than madness for 1v1.

 

- Madness: death field is nice, is where the majority of their overall dps comes out. feels like a sorc that can survive 3 seconds longer but than loses 40% of their dps from the start. Decent mobility, stealth is sort of nice (until your out of it). Damage done is easily reduced if other players are paying attention. Easily replaced in pve (as well as pvp).

 

Note: they are good in combination, though I know the developers dislike hybrids. This mainly came about when players realised that since the dps over all was weak (because they died so often, simply without dealing enough damage before hand). That it was better to keep the utility, some dps, and dark charge to do dps over time, than it is to be in either of the dps builds provided.

[PerKIA]

1. How do you think your Assassin spec is perceived by other classes?

 

Except the "stealth+mind trap lets bypass this mob" and someone to kill weak to moderat mobs, somethiong they have to carry through operations due to their lack of "group helping skill/abbilities" and their not so great dps.

 

2. How do you perceive your own spec?

 

As a deception PvE Assassin, i dont have anything to really compete with snipers/mercs/marauders when it comes to dps. As a team member i have nothing to offer except average dps. But, its fun to play, soloing has a lot to offer tactic wise. So, my conclusion, its not really a MMO class, but a single player class

 

im a lvl 50 deception, played since december.

[Maddrox_G]

1. How do you think your Assassin spec is perceived by other classes?

 

Darkness - Armor and healing seam to be over nerfed , Dps in this form using Dps gear is weaker than my powertech / Jugg tank using defensive gear.

 

Deception - Dps and group synergy of this spec are pretty poor compared to other classes

 

Madness - Not overly bad but still overshadowed by other classes / Sorc simply does it better in madness spec

 

2. How do you perceive your own spec?

 

The only spec I can still tolerate playing is 31/0/10 which is fun when soloing but really has no place in a group , This class seams to be missing its role in groups after 1.2 , powertech and Jugg can out tank and out dps us at the same time in most cases and dps classes have more survivability than our dps spec , stealth and AoE threat is really the only things this class has going for it right now , The hybrid melee/range concept is nice but the ranged skills need to be boosted in both dmg and maybe set to 15m instead of the current 10m range other classes can simply just out range or escape you otherwise force speed makes up for this a little but with the longer cd than force leap I hardly consider it a gap closer.

[ATAMIANM]

Comments strictly PVE-based and for Deception Assassin:

 

1. How do you think your Assassin spec is perceived by other classes?

I think most groups would prefer a real tank (e.g., juggernaught). . DPS is not on par with other classes. Survivability is not as good as other classes.

 

2. How do you perceive your own spec?

SQUISHY! I like the assassin look and play, but even in PVE it can be hard to solo some of the class quests. You absolutely HAVE to have your healer comp, none of the other options are viable due to the low survivability. It would be nice if the assassin could get an armor bump or some self-healing capability. The stealth part of the character is great. Why not have a force pushback ala Darth Maul?

[Nilthien]

I play Deception in pve and pvp.

 

1. I feel we are seen as subpar dps in pve with the exception of a few fights such as fabricator in KP.

 

In pvp unless I get the jump on someone by themselves, I'm probably going to die. As soon as I use voltaic slash, I'm a marked man and get focused hard, usually more than healers. In short, an easy kill.

 

2. I see myself as decent dps in pve. As long as Dark embrace is up I can dish out damage like I feel we should. Weak armor, but beastly damage. However, as soon as I run out of triggers for dark embrace, my damage plummets and I use the standard attack every 2nd or 3rd GCD because I have no more force. On fights that last more than a minute or so, I feel like it was a waste for the group to bring me because spamming the standard attack that often is not going to help kill the boss.

 

In pvp I feel like in a 1v1 I can do pretty well, even fight back against a melee class that jumps me while I'm out of stealth. But even when I do survive, it's only because I used at least 1 or 2 CDs. We don't seem to have the burst needed to take down more than a sorc or sniper before we're in trouble, though. God forbid we get attacked while our vanish is on CD, we're toast. In big fights, our only chance to survive is hoping nobody targets the guy throwing the yo-yo saber. I love the animation for it, but it's a big neon "KILL ME FIRST!" sign. Also, Spike is not a good opener, it does next to no damage and the stun lasts 0.5 sec longer than the GCD it triggers. If it gave me time to get one more full attack and start a second, then I'd be happy with it use, or if it did damage comparable to Maul when the armor pen procs. I really only find is useful as a ghetto interrupt. If I miraculously go a whole fight without being focused, or outgear the opposing team by a considerable amount, then yes, we are pretty awesome. But as we are now, I'm just playing deception in the hopes it gets buffed soon to be on par with certain other classes.